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Remember how I told you I brought home some beers from Yorkshire?
Yes? No? Does it matter?

Well, I did. And one of these beers was Old Tom.

Old Tom is brewed by Robinsons, of Stockport in Cheshire. Dating back to 1838, they remain a family business - the family being the Robinsons, I expect.
They produce a range of ales, including: Double Hop, Unicorn (named after the pub where it all started) and Hartleys XB which they supply to over 400 tied Pubs in North West England and North Wales.

Old Tom is brewed using: pale and crystal malt, a small amount of chocolate malt and caramel is used for colour. Goldings whole hops, and a small amount of Northdown hops are used. It's dry hopped in the cask with Goldings pellets.

THEY SAY:
" A heady, vinous aromas of dark fruit. Booming balance of ripe malt and peppery hops; deep port wine finish with bitter hops balance. A dark, rich and warming superior barley wine."

OLD TOM pours a slightly hazy, rich and deep mahogany colour with little more than half an inch of tight, off-white foam that's slow to dissipate, but doesn't leave an awful lot of lace on the glass.

The aroma of is of dark, vinous fruit - raisins, dates, prunes etc, with sweet malt and hints of caramel and chocolate. It's a little estery, and the alcohol is noticeable on the nose too. It's quite bready and treacly and almost has the feel of a fruit-cake. Quite a substantial malt aroma, but there's not a lot of hops evident.

It's full-bodied and has a smooth mouth feel. The taste, as with the aroma, is initially of sweet malt and dark fruit - prunes and dates, but it turns a little thinner midway and the alcohol kicks in. The treacly, molasses-type flavour is there, but not quite so prominent as in the aroma. The hops finally make an appearance towards the finish with a late, nippy bitterness and a fairly dry aftertaste.


At 8.5% ABV, this is a decent enough barley wine but it's not up there with the best. It's certainly complex enough, and there's no shortage of different flavours and aromas to keep you interested, but I thought it just a little heavy-handed, alcohol-wise. I like beers that nudge the 7-8-9% mark, but I don't want the alcohol taste to be so up front. Subtlety's the key.
Having said that, it's still a nice beer and would be ideally suited to drinking on a chilly Winter's evening (or an afternoon in the middle of August around here!).
As it's a barley wine, it would probably be better suited as a dessert beer than a meal accompaniment, but who am I to tell you what, or what not to eat. Or indeed when and what/who with. Or where. Or why...

As for availability, according to their website, Robinsons say that this beer is available on draught at many of their pubs and as a guest ale elsewhere - I wouldn't know. I bought mine in a small off-licence and paid 1.99 for a 275ml bottle. Not exactly cheap, but you'd expect a higher ABV beer to be that little bit more expensive.

Would I drink it again? - To be purrfectly honest, maybe.

Learn more about this author, Andrew H Brown.
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